Dennis Goodson built the "Tri-Hauler" bike for his old club brother Rotten Ralph, who was paralized from the waist-down, due to a lady who hit him head-on. Ralph died a while ago, and Dennis re-acquired the bike back again. He's gone through the bike from top to bottom, and it's in tip-top roadworthy shape. It's also for sale. Give the video a watch, and Dennis' contact info is at the end of the video if you're interested in the bike.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The Great Fatsby.....
Leslie West and Mountain in 1970, in their prime. 40 years later, Mountain consistently places in the top 25 all-time group polls in every the rock publication. Still one of my favorite guitarists, I was fortunate to see Mountain many, many times when they played on stage just like this clip......
Unfortunately, I saw Leslie West in the early '80's and he was a pretty sad figure. Never a small man to begin with, West was grossly way over 300 lbs., glassy-eyed, strung out on dope and alcohol, and missing most of his teeth. He could still play guitar at the intensity he always did, but at most of his concerts, he was too fucked up to either remember to, or be able to sing the words to songs he'd done a bazillion times. It was really painful to watch him perform.
Fortunately (unlike so many other fellow performers from the '60's), West went underground for a long time, lost all his weight, got sober, and got himself a new set of choppers. Still on the road with Corky Lang, his longtime drummer, and still tearing up the stage. Go see him if you ever get the chance. Meanwhile, turn this up LOUD........
Fortunately (unlike so many other fellow performers from the '60's), West went underground for a long time, lost all his weight, got sober, and got himself a new set of choppers. Still on the road with Corky Lang, his longtime drummer, and still tearing up the stage. Go see him if you ever get the chance. Meanwhile, turn this up LOUD........
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
150,000 page views.......
This makes me feel pretty good. We reached a couple milestones here on Applied Machete. We hit over 150,000 page views, and 160 followers sometime last week. Thanks to everybody who comes here to visit, thank you for all the Emails, and thank all of you that have links from your blogspots to here.
I thought you'd like to see what the alltime top 10 viewed posts have been over the last 3 years on Applied Machete:
1. Von Dutch Monday VI
I thought you'd like to see what the alltime top 10 viewed posts have been over the last 3 years on Applied Machete:
1. Von Dutch Monday VI
2. Of Tank Girl, Pete Pepe's CFL, and Craig Fraser
3. Bending The Line
4. A Hells Angel Goes To The Smithsonian
5. Robert Tessier
6. CNC???
7. Bill Ray Wasn't The Lone Ranger
8. 1039 Ardmore Ave.
9. The Electric Chair
10. Norm Grabowski's "Six Pack"
Single downtube CFL frames.....
A rarity even when West Coast Choppers was in full swing, the WCC CFL frame in a single downtube configuration is something you may never see in person, so few were the build numbers.
Never offered to the general public as an option on a CFL frame, you either had to have one built as a shop bike, or "have an in" at WCC to obtain one.
Because WCC wouldn't sell one, a lot of independent shops took a customer's regular CFL frame, and converted it to a single downtube. But, considering the thousands of WCC CFL frames that were built, a genuine WCC-built single loop CFL frame is as rare as hen's teeth. Every once and awhile, a bare frame will show up on Ebay with the WCC pedigree, and commands a pretty good penny to obtain it. Right or wrong, the last one I saw on Ebay went for 9 grand......
Photos 7 and 8 aren't shop-built bikes, but all the single loop frames, and every bike in this post are WCC-built single downtube frames.
Mark Nelson's single loop CFL. It was at the end of this photo shoot for Hardcore Choppers Japan that mark earned his nickname "9 1/2". It's a widely-known story, but if you haven't read or heard about it, you'll just have to ask Mark. This is another one that's in my shop-built "Top 5 CFL's" list.
I saved this one for last. The photo was taken "upstairs" at WCC soon after the move to the Anaheim St. shop. From what I understand, Jesse did this frame at the beginning of the CFL frame manufacturing as a prototype design. As far as I know, there were only two of this exact style frames built - this one, and the one below.......
This is my single downtube CFL frame. OriginallyI had asked Jesse if WCC could build this frame for a client of mine in Santa Fe, and Jesse said, "Yeah, sure....". Well, I kept asking, and Jesse kept saying "Sure...", but it was through the persistent lobbying of Mark (9 1/2) Nelson, that it was finally completed in '05.
It was funny, at the time this was assembled, WCC had a "showroom" and a "shop" cam operating, and you could see what was going on in those locations on Jesse's website Chopperdogs. The shop camera happened to be pointed just right, and you could see the guys assembling this frame in the jig all that week. Everybody was positive it was a frame for Jesse Rooke. I never said anything different. Originally, I had the go-ahead to buy a couple of these style frames, but money ws tight, and I only had WCC build this one, with an option to get one for myself later on.
It was funny, at the time this was assembled, WCC had a "showroom" and a "shop" cam operating, and you could see what was going on in those locations on Jesse's website Chopperdogs. The shop camera happened to be pointed just right, and you could see the guys assembling this frame in the jig all that week. Everybody was positive it was a frame for Jesse Rooke. I never said anything different. Originally, I had the go-ahead to buy a couple of these style frames, but money ws tight, and I only had WCC build this one, with an option to get one for myself later on.
Well, it turned out that my client in Santa Fe decided to forgo his new build, and bought a KTM or something instead. He offered the frame back to me, and I didn't hesitate buying it, vowing that it wouldn't ever leave here again. I've had some pretty outrageous $$$$$ offers to sell this frame over the years, and I've turned them all down.
The specs on this frame are 1" up, 2" out, with a 35 degree rake, with a special spiderweb gusset cut to match. The curved downtube and backbone are 1 1/2" dia. x 1/4" wall tubing, with the remainder of the frame tubes at the standard WCC 1 1/8" x 1/8" wall tube. It was originally set up for a 200 tire, and a drop down battery box, when that battery location was a shop CFL built-only offering.I have the original MSO (signed by Pearl) for the frame, and the original custom order build sheet for it. Another strange thing about this frame is that the VIN # for it is stamped under the front engine mount, not on the mount's front surface like other CFL's are.
You might just see this frame on the road this year, that's all I'm coping to.........
More mailbag.....
Capt. Cal, a faithful follower of Applied Machete, sent me the original article from the July '60 issue of Car Craft, on the BSA-powered kart I had in my previous post You'd do it in a heartbeat..., on Jan. 16,'11. You can read it here:
While the photo I posted wasn't included in the original CC article, nor the two models (too bad!), I was right in my guess that George Barris was the photog, as he is credited in the article as such. Thanks again, Cal, for sending along these scans, they were most appreciated!
As always, any additional information or photos you'd like to send me related to previous posts you've read is always welcomed. I'll share it with everybody as a follow-up. Send them to:
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